How To Play Sargam

by Paul Barrette, May 2005

What is sargam? Sargam are the notes or the swar of the ICM scale. In the article on notation, I mentioned the notes of the scale and how they relate to the Western Solfege scale. David Courtney has described the etymology of sargam as "Sa Re Ga Ma...", which is analogous to the Western term for "alphabet" (alpha beta et[c.])

There is nothing mysterious about meaning of sargam, whether you buy into the etymology or not. What is much more important is the way it is used.

When I (or many others) say SARGAM, I don't just mean a scale of notes swaddled in lofty polysyllabic expressions, I mean the act of playing the sargam. Playing the sargam is the single most important thing you can do when you are learning sitar. I don't think there is anything that you can practise that will have as much an impact on your playing as SARGAM. I am not just saying this because I've been told to by my teacher. This is something I have learned the hard way. When I began learning sitar, my first teachers didn't stress the playing of the sargam too much or enforce it. After all, there is nothing joyous about playing one note after the other in succession, over and over again. Students tend to hate sargam for this very reason. Getting students to buy into sargam is a challenge.

After having studied one on one with teachers for around a year, I took one of Anwar's group classes. We played sargam for about 30 minutes. I couldn't believe how much my hand hurt! (The pace was fairly slow too). This was really not fun at all, I thought to myself. Then Anwar gave me his famous speech about sargam:

Sargam fixes everything. If you left hand needs callous, sargam fixes that. If you right hand is not strong enough, sargam fixes that. If you are not confident in class, sargam fixes that. If you don't know where the notes are at the beginning, or how to sit properly for long periods of time or need discipline or are breaking in a new mizrab or you are trying to increase your speed or clarity or timing or rhythm or are breaking in your new sitar etc....Sargam fixes all those things and more. --Anwar Khurshid, The Sitar School Of Toronto

(Actually, I embellished a little on that quotation, mainly because I can't remember exactly what he said word for word). Then he showed us how we are supposed to practice sargam. I was a believer. Finally, I had something that I could practise on my own and with a good chance that I would get it right (LOL!). A few weeks later I went to my first shibbir (which is like a sitar camp) given by our guru Ustad Shahid Parvez. We began every day with sargam and we played hundreds of them! What really opened my eyes was when the senior students would play twice my speed and still keep the rhythm.

All this talk about sargam, now let me specifically show you what I mean. One sargam is:

The blue numbers on top are the tabla beats. Each not is a full beat note, so it is really easy to play. The Red "D" and "R" letters mean da and ra strokes respectively. Finally, the green "I" and "M" letters pertain to the finger used for that note. "I" means index finger and "M" means middle finger. Now, play that 500 times! Actually, you have to be careful at first and slowly increase the number of sargams you do daily so that you don't hurt your hands. If you are beginning, aim at 50 sargams/day for a few weeks to build up the calous and strengthen your fingers and hands. Then aim for 100, gradually increasing over the course of 6 months.

I think it is best to play the notes clearly, don't get preoccupied with speed. It is up to you how fast you want to play them, just don't sacrifice your form. If you can play the sargam clearly at a fast speed, then do it (great stuff)! One thing I like to do is play the sargam really hard for a few hundred and then practise the my lessons. I mean really strike the strings hard. It is amazing how tiring this can be. This will really strengthen your right/mizrab hand. Keep in mind that by playing hard sargam, you are really doing your sitar a favour by helping it find its voice. A few years of sargam and your sitar will sound great. Some people say that sargam wears out your jawari too fast. I don't agree. Sargam is hard on the jawari, but so is playing a lot, and that is what you are doing when you play sargam. You will have to fix the grooves in your bridge surface at some point anyway. So don't let that discourage you.

BTW, note that I set used the notation where the high Sa has a superscript dot. One thing I find really helpful when I play sargam is to play it to tintal. Tintal is a rhythmic cycle of 16 beats. David Courtney has an interesting discussion on this tal or rhythm. This is great for training yourself to play to the rhythm. If you are new to tintal, as I was, playing to it over and over will really give you a good feel for this important tal. Sargam can be tedious, so your job is to find a way to keep in interesting and fresh.

Sargam Form: left hand, right hand etc.

Before I mention the sargam tricks you can do, I want to make sure the form is correct, since there is no sense building on a faulty foundation. This is just a brief overview, as I am not a sitar teacher.

Right Hand

If you are left handed, then I mean the mizrab or pick hand. The stroke is important here. The upward stroke is call the DA stroke. The downward stroke is called the Ra stroke. There is also a really fast stroke Diri, which is both. Sargam will help develop these. All the fingers must move together and extend fully after a downward Rastroke. This form is important to strengthen your hand. Typically, first time sitar players should practise this motion alone and then move on to practising it on the open string of the sitar. Don't worry about what you sound like, this is an investment and it will pay off. The next step is to use this da ra motion on the notes. The right hand motion must be effortless and the sitarist shouldn't be thinking about the right hand at all. It must be second nature. You will be too busy focusing on the left hand (note picking hand) anyway. So, teach yourself the right hand motion first and it will do the job when you need it to.

left hand

Proper note freting is very important. Make sure you use your index finger for every note in the ascending direction (toward to bridge) and then use your second finger ONLY for the last note. Then strike the last note again and begin the journey down the scale (toward the head of the sitar). NB when your middle finger is on the last note (here high Sa), your index finger will be on Ni. This is very efficient, since all you have to do is lift the middle finger and the next note is all ready to play. The philosophy is to only use the second finger for the last note and only when you are about to change directions. The index finger should always remain in contact with the string. Your teacher will have to spend time making sure you do this right, if you are a beginner. If you think your second finger is getting no action, think again. When you learn how to do meend, which is a pulling of the string, the second finger figures quite prominently. You only need these two fingers to play sitar. There are other schools of thought where you use the ring finger as well, but I don't recommend that method. Ultimately, your teacher will decide for you, so don't worry about it.

Spice Up Your Sargam

Ok, now that that is out of the way... There are many things you can do to spice up your sargam sessions. One major factor is the use of a tabla machine (or player if you can find one) which will keep the rhythm for you. This machine will force you to follow, much like a Western musician uses a metronome. It is very difficult to keep the rhythm and play. It is always easier if something/someone else keeps the rhythm. I always play sargam to tintal because it fits perfectly, 16 beats of the tabla == 16 notes of sargam. But that doesn't mean that you can only play 16 notes.

Sargam 2: Double Notes

Play one sargam followed by one double note sargam. This will help with the diri stroke later. It will also get your right hand used to the speed to play. I think this is the most important part. The left hand will catch up, but the right must set the pace.

Sargam 3: Cascade From High to Low

Repeat one after the other or mix it with regular and double note sargams.

Sargam 4: with a Taan

A Taan is a faster piece, often double time or more. Typically, it is a fixed composition, but the artist may improvise on it as well. For our purposes, we just want something that is fixed for now. This is great practise for playing double time, but in a non-linear manner. Repeat one after the other or mix it with regular and double note sargams:

Sargam 5: with yet another Taan

This is another sargam with a taan in it. This one is more difficult because you have to jump to high Sa from the lower Sa. Repeat one after the other or mix it with regular and double note sargams:

Sargam 6: with another Taan

This is another sargam with a taan in it. This one is also difficult because you have several jumps in it. This one requires a lot of practise, but is well worth it. Repeat one after the other or mix it with regular and double note sargams:

Sargam is great practise, but it doesn't have to be boring and linear. Nothing is more boring than playing the same notes over and over again, so spice up your sargam with some of the variations I have shown above. This will sound like you are actually playing something. My wife still complains when I play sargam and says,

can't you play anything other than do re me.. ?

LOL!